ITE in for Indaba as growth initiatives pay off

(Sharecast News) - Events organiser ITE has agreed to acquire the world's largest mining conference and said revenues will be up for the full year as transformation and growth initiatives begin to pay off.The London-listed outfit projected that revenues have moved ahead roughly 14% in the year ended 30 September, thanks to a combined growth in revenue of 13% across its top-ten events. On a like-for-like basis, revenues were up 10% year-on-year.Following ITE's investments throughout the year, including its acquisition of Ascential Events, net debt widened 66% throughout the year to approximately £83m. ITE noted this figure was in line with its expectations.In its Wednesday morning pre-close trading update, ITE said: "The year has been one of considerable activity and progress. The company has taken a number of important steps towards realising its vision for the business. The board is confident in the group's future growth prospects."By the end of September around £113m of revenue had been booked for the new financial year, compared to the £83m in place at this time last year. On a like-for-like basis, these revenues are 14% ahead of this time last year and on a volume basis are 3% ahead.Elsewhere, ITE agreed to acquire the rights to Mining Indaba, a mining sector conference in South Africa, from Euromoney for £30.1m, on a cash-free, debt-free basis. This will add to ITE's current management of the Africa Oil Week conference.An initial cash payment of £20m will be followed by a deferred cash consideration of £10.1m in June 2019. The acquisition will be funded from a combination of ITE's existing cash resources and bank borrowing.Chief executive Mark Shashoua, said: "This acquisition is consistent with our stated strategy of making disciplined and value-enhancing acquisitions of market-leading events and Mining Indaba is also highly complementary to our AOW exhibition.As of 0835 BST, ITE shares had dipped 2.93% to 73p.